the pincer move that could open up data centers - by peter judge

Views and Opinions on Green IT (Jul 17 2011)

1. 

   One way or another, organisations are going to have to be more open about the efficiency,the energy use and the carbon intensity of their data centers.

   I’m not entirely sure why they don’t already publish full details of what energy they use and where it comes from. But in the last week or so I’ve heard strong arguments for more openness from three directions - pressure groups, government, and the industry itself.

   Firstly, pressure groups. Greenpeace made its case again, at a London conference, that data centers should reduce their carbon emissions, by moving to renewable energy. The group met resistance from industry spokespeople, who wanted an emphasis on efficiency rather than carbon intensity, but the two sides agreed (more or less) that what was needed was more open publication of information about how data centers operate.

   Secondly government. Britain is still plugging away at its CRC law, effectively taxing corporations on the emissions they produce. It’s started out very complex, with a scheme that would - more or less - have made all large companies put money into a pot, and then whoever cuts their carbon most would get money back.

   The refunds got dumped when government decided it needed to keep the money to balance the books, but it looks like the “league table” of carbon users will stay, because just putting the price up isn’t enough to change behaviour: companies need to know they face public scrutiny.

   “We have ample evidence that price alone does not ensure non-energy intensive organisations implement cost-effective energy efficiency measures that are available to them.,” said energy minister Greg Barker.

   Finally, industry. A pressure group like the Green Grid is never going to step beyond what its vendor and user members are willing to go with, but Fujitsu’s David Snelling, who is on the Grid’s EMEA technical groups said that the gruop started with the idea of getting data centers to be more open.

   Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), a simple ratio, was the best compromise the group could get, and falls short of persuading firms to detail what their actual power usage is. The Green Grid is already testing out measures like Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE) for carbon intensity, and If firms could be persuaded to share more, I reckon the Grid would help them find a way to do it.

   Greenpeace’s Tom Dowdall said that what his group wants is full disclosure of energy use - but most companies regard this as a commercial secret. 

   Dowdall is dubious about just how commercially important a company’s electricity bills really is, and so am I. What is a competitor going to work out? How many servers the firm is running?  How close the data center is to being fully loaded? 

   I may be missing something here (and if I am, do tell me what it is). But I think it’s just a knee-jerk reaction to refuse to publish that kind of data. We’d all be better off if it was published.

   And the pincer movement -  between government, environmentalists, and those in the industry who back lower carbon - might just be enough to make sure it gets published.

   Peter Judge is editor of eWEEKEuropeUK  -->-->

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